The Slve Trade

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FC: The Slave Trade

1: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade started around the mid-fifteenth century. Slavery started out as just a punishment to people who committed horrible crimes, and prisoners of war. The demand for slaves grew more and more so the traders started kidnapping men, women, and children to sell as slaves. Living in villages in Africa was sometimes difficult due to traders coming in and kidnapping people. Older children were often lookouts for their villages, if they saw any traders coming they were to cry out letting others know.

2: Olaudah Equiano in 1742 in the African country that is now Nigeria. One day while his parents were out working in a field Olaudah and his sister heard the cry telling them traders were coming. They were tariffed hoping they wouldn't be found, but they were found by the traders and taken away.

3: Olaudah and his sister were both very frightened and they did not know what would happen to them now. They were tied up, had sacks placed on them and were carried away for a few days until they were taken to an African settlement where he was separated from his sister. When traders would take families they were taken from each other and never saw each other again. While he was a slave in Africa he was treated kindly, but America was very different in the way they treated the slaves. When taking slaves to America traders would tie up the adults, throw them and the children in a tight space below deck. Below deck smelled horrible, so many people in a tight space for so long. Lots of people didn't even make it to America they died below deck.

5: Under horrible conditions Olaudah just wanted to die, he could not jump off the ship because of the nets on the side so he refused to eat. People who did not eat were beaten as punishment. Not wanting to be punished again Olaudah started eating again. After a long and hard vogue they reached the west Indies. Slaves were then poked and prodded all over by potential owners who wanted to make sure their slaves were healthy. Slaves were taken ashore and put into pens waiting to be bought. The slaves who were sickly would be picked last.

7: The only way slaves could be set free is if they were able to buy their freedom Olaudah started buying fruit and selling it to sailors to make a small profit. He eventually saved enough to buy his freedom. Being free he settled in england, he started speaking to people about his experience with being a slave. He did everything he could to reach people about the matter. In 1807 slavery was abolished in Britain and in 1833 was gone throughout the empire.